The Vagina Mystery...explained

I'm not a good blogger. I am sporadic at best. I post too many videos. I don't have a following. I run out of ideas.

But I still like to share. So I give you this:

Ken Levine puts Re$iduals in perspective.

I am very liberally quoting from the great Ken Levine's blog here in the hopes that the information continues to be disseminated and everyone is edified.
If you aren't already a subscriber, take a moment to go over to www.kenlevine.blogspot.com.

UPDATE: Ken just emailed me with permission to post the piece and expressed to me the importance of passing on this info. If you have a blog and you are interested in helping artists like myself please feel free to repost. 

DOUBLE UPDATE: I have also gotten my hands on a draft of a letter to State Senator Keuhl from Ken and will be sending my own copy. If you would like to do the same, the letter is in the comments section.

Thanks.

"The purpose of the reunion was that the WGA is trying to get a “Fair Market Value” bill passed through the California legislature (Bill #1765 if you're scoring). Here’s why:
A studio like 20th Century Fox produces a big hit like MASH. Some of the members of the creative staff (in this case Alan Alda and Larry Gelbart) have an ownership piece of the series. 20th offers the show for syndication. There’s a bidding war. They take the best offer – a huge windfall. Alan and Larry share in the largesse. And since residual rates depend on the deal – actors, writers, and directors receive nice royalties. Everyone wins.
But now these studios are all swallowed up by mega conglomerates. And agendas change.
20th becomes the property of News Corp. News Corp. wants to start a cable network (FX). They need programming. MASH would be perfect. So instead of renewing a rich syndication deal, they sell it essentially to themselves for nothing. Now the profit participants get nothing. News Corp. receives all advertising revenue from MASH and uses the show to lure viewers and build their cable network. Ultimately, the cable network will be more profitable to the conglomerate than the syndication sale. Residuals are smaller and the creators get screwed.
That’s what News Corp. did with MASH and X-FILES, and Universal did with WILL & GRACE. In all three cases the profit participants sued and each received a giant settlement. The congloms have done this with other series and have gotten away with it because the cost of litigation is so high.
So the Guild is trying to prevent this practice in the future. And this bill would go a long way towards that end. Over the next couple of months we MASH writers will be going to Sacramento to plead our case to state legislatures. We might even get to see the Governor if we promise to say we didn't hate AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS.
What does it say when we have to get an actual law passed because “everyone wins” just isn’t good enough for them?"

Brilliant, Ken.

Septenary Souffle

Taking a cue from ickmusic I thought I'd hit shuffle on the ipod and see where the journey would take me after two nights of watching Michael Jackson's company whore out the rights to John Lennon and Paul McCartney's music. Are the Beatles such sacred cows that they shouldn't be a part of the Great American Karaoke Show? Yes. And I'm not even a Beatles fan.

On with the show.

1. Regina Spektor - Summer in the City.

You know, I have this album, Begin to Hope, but I've never gotten past the songs I fell in love with, namely; On the Radio, Fidelity and Hotel Song. But this one just makes me melancholy for being back in NY. I want to find a family with a midtown apartment that wants to do a house swap, pack up the wife, the dog and the kid and spend the summer in the city.

2. Tegan & Sara - The Con

Okay, this is another album I gave no time to. I Like T&S's voice, they are cutesy, sing songy, twin lesbians from Canada but I'm not sure that it really works here. The backing music sounds like Britney Spears' producers listened to a lot of Gary Numan, took some coke and just couldn't stop. I really need to delete some of this stuff.

3. Earth, Wind and Fire - Brick House.

Am I at a wedding? Okay, the reason I had this song in the first place is to make a soundtrack to Mrs. Spetenary and my nuptials. Because as my old friend John Sy. says, "It's guaranteed to get people on the floor". He's right. I want to dance right now. Sheka-ga-sheka-now-now!

4. Cake - Up So Close

I was in a coffee shop in Bakersfield, of all places. Lizzie had her first taste of Almond Soda. She was not even one. Hadn't been diagnosed yet. I don't think, at least. And I was sort of mesmerized by this place. This was the early-mid 90s and coffee shops were the new thang. But this one was on an almost deserted street that seemed to have been abandoned in 1957. In fact, most of Bakersfield felt that way and i really have no idea why we were there.

This music was playing on the speakers and, for the first time since college, I went up to the cashier and asked who it was. He pulled out the CD. Cake. Motorcade of Generosity. I had it in less than 24 hours. I listened to that sucker for weeks. It's still great.

5. Radiohead - High & Dry.

Okay I cheated. But I truly meant to delete that crappy Nine Inch Nails instrumental Ghosts shit, I promise.

I was late to Radiohead. I didn't discover them until about 6 months ago. What I mean to say is, I eschewed them and poo poo'ed them and when I finally grew mature enough to understand it, I recognized the genius that lay within. Right in the heart of BritPop and sounding like Oasis' smarter, better cousin, is this song.

6. Metallica - Enter Sandman

Wow, iPod, I had no idea you loved the 90s so much! This song has been the opening theme to the Tom Leykis show for as long as I can remember now. But more importantly, it still rocks, it still makes you bang your head and it. is. 17. years. old!

When Enter Sandman came out, Watergate was 17 years old.  Think about it.

That's about a half hour and nice place to start. Perhaps we shall souffle again someday....

Shuffleboil Post: Black Mountain

The Review can be found here:

Emancipation and gratitude.

I debated about whether to write about this here.
Its not that I am ashamed, nor is it that I am fearful that people will think differently of me.
I definitely don't want sympathy. I've had enough of that to fill Devil's Punchbowl.
No, I just wanted to say something to commemorate a very important day in my life.
It means nothing to anyone else but it means a lot to me.
When I decided to leave a very destructive and decaying marriage it was a difficult decision to say the least. After all, I didn't get married to get divorced. That wasn't the initial plan. Plus, my ex-wife and I had a seriously ill daughter that I loved very much.
I won't speak ill of my ex here, those that know me know what kind of person she was. To say we were a mismatch is an understatement. My father had just died and I needed some stability so I sought refuge in a woman whose behavior became more and more erratic and more violent. The rest of her family were.....difficult, to say the least.
Okay, enough of that.

On March 10th, 1998, I sat in a judge's chambers while she reprimanded my ex-wife for incivility, threatened to send her to jail for contempt and, formally dissolved that marriage.
As luck would have it, on that very same day, a judge in another court some 25 miles away was to render a decision as to whether I could ever see my daughter again.
Obviously, I could. And Did.
Lizzie and I became father and daughter again. The next 8 years were special, to say the least. I wouldn't have traded them for anything in the world. I miss her terribly but am thankful for that time.
So, you might excuse me while I dance for joy and shout to the heavens in thanks.
Thanks for, well, giving me the strength to get out.
Thanks to my mother who stood by my side.
Thanks to my brother who stood vigil the first time we almost lost Liz and made it so I could see her.
Thanks to Bob the Lawyer. Even though he said I "should give up. Men don't win this kind of case". He stuck to our guns and we persevered.
Thanks to Judge Kathi for seeing manipulation and greed when no one else would.
Thanks to the people who never believed I could do any of the things I was accused of.
Thanks to Sacred Fools for rescuing me when I needed a home.
Thanks to Zander for taking me in at a time when I was, indeed, nearly friendless.
Thanks to Michael Weiss for showing me that there can be salvation even for a non-believer.
Thanks to Rabbi Finley and Ohr Hatorah for Kaddish every week.
Thanks to all my agents and managers and casting directors who kept getting me work even though I was a basket case.
Thanks to Nancy, my therapist, without whom I could never love another woman without fear of reprisal.
Thanks to Liz for being the only kind of daughter I ever wanted and letting me be the father I wanted to be.
Thanks to Hennepin County Medical Center for saving my life.
Thanks to Haven Villa for being a true Haven.
Thanks to David and Iden and Todd and Gary and Deena and Mary and Andre and Doug and Jon and Damon and Scott and Pat and Crystal and anyone else who was part of my rebirth that was TBS.
Thanks to AK for believing that I could be the caretaker of her best friend's heart.
Thanks to Beth for sharing her life with me.
Thanks to Raj Makkar for saving my life. Again.
Thanks to Huckleberry for being a girl's best friend and a man's best pain in the ass.
Thanks to Kristen for being there.
Thanks to Vinnie for giving a peace sign at exactly the right time.
Thanks to Chaim Beliak for believing that I could go on.
Thanks to Claudette for believing I could get it down on paper.

And, finally,

Thanks to Zoe for giving me another chance.

Thanks. And WOO-the fuck-HOO!

Shuffleboil Post: Nine Inch Nails' Ghosts I-IV

My review of the new (free version) NIN music is up at Shuffleboil

I include it here, because, well, that's what I do. But, go to the Boil and subscribe because there is tons o great stuff there.

Nine Inch Nails
Ghosts I-IV (Free 9 song download)

(To be fair, this reviewer only heard the free download which is a 9 track sampler from a larger, 36 track, piece. However, if this is to be regarded as a “sampler” or a “taste” then the following review is well founded and the author stands by it.)

Trent Reznor wrote on his blog that he was mildly (or slightly more so) disappointed that so few people chose to spend the measly $5 on his “Niggy Tardust” project from last year. In the shadow of the “Pay-what-you-want” Radiohead model and in response to the ridiculous overhead his record labels pass on to the consumers he forged ahead into this valley of “choice”. So, it has come to pass that there is new Nine Inch Nails music. It is called “Ghosts I-IV ” and, on the free version, there are nine tracks, all instrumental. It is, once again, free for download from the and this time it comes in a variety of options: Free, $5, $10, $75, $300 (currently sold out), ranging from purely digital downloads of the songs (free) to digi packs and hard copies and slideshows and multi-media, it’s an exhaustive attempt to try and break the stranglehold the labels have, bring the music directly to the masses, cut out the middle man and BE the new model.

There’s just one thing.

This isn’t all that great. The music, I mean. It’s more like watered down NiN. It’s ambient (Hence the Ghosts motif, I guess) and repetitive. It’s hypnotic, but anything repeated over and over again would, I think, become hypnotic. As a soundtrack it might work for a black and white silent piece about self-reflection as filmed by a self-indulgent University Film Student.

Trent Reznor is to today’s electronic innovations what Gary Numan’s Replicas was to NiN’s “Downward Spiral: Inspiration” but out-dated (albeit Numan did bounce back into the gothic/depresso/electro fold with “Pure”).

Ultimately “Ghosts I-IV” is excellent background music for one of those anti-Scientology Anonymous videos pervading YouTube. It’s decidedly NOT sexy, unlike previous NIN, there is little to no appeal to flicking on the strobe light, dropping some E and rutting like demonic escapees from “Rosemary’s Baby.”

Should you download NiN’s “Ghosts I-IV?” If you can figure out a way to get my 27 minutes back, then sure! But, if you have better things to do with your time, like eat and breath and watch reality TV, that is time better spent.

Bemis does it again.

This time he reviews one of my favorite films of all time, presents his thoughts in ways that I never thought to imagine and reminds me, once again, what a lost art the brilliance of Kael-esque film criticism is. You keep your "Rotten Tomatoes". I'll go with Bemis.

After some discussion about great years of filmmaking, it was brought up that 1979 was a watershed year. I happen to agree with that. I might have been the one who said it first, I don't recall. But, in a year where the best picture nominees included Apocalypse Now, All That Jazz and Breaking Away, we have to admit, it was a pretty good year.

Go here to read Bemis' All That Jazz review.

It's sublime. It's literate. It blows the doors off any recent reviewing I have read.

Watchmen Costumes

I just got back from the dentist. Had a crown put in. Temporary. Novacaine is annoying. I sit down, a little dizzy from the procedure, pain creeping back in and what is in my Google Reader? A link to IwatchStuff.Com.
Zack Snyder has released photos of most of the costumes from one of the most anticipated/reviled movies of next year.
After seeing the costumes I'm on board. Especially Rorschach and Comedian. Yeah. I'm in it now.

Snapshot: Beverly Hills

The athletic field of Beverly Hills High School viewed from the window of my cardiologist's office.
Oh, to be rich and 16 again......